1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic musical instruments having tuning devices, which are suitable for musical practice played in an ensemble.
This application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-11957, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. H06-40262 teaches an example of an electronic musical instrument having a tuning device, i.e., an electronic keyboard instrument having a tuning device, in which a reference tone used for tuning is produced upon depression of a key of a desired tone pitch. When a player plays a musical instrument subjected to tuning by listening to the reference tone, the electronic musical instrument detects a musical tone, which is actually produced by playing the musical instrument, by means of a microphone, a pitch difference is detected between the actually produced musical tone and the reference tone and is then displayed on a display screen. The aforementioned electronic musical instrument having the tuning device is used to notify the player of a musical instrument subjected to tuning of the frequency of a reference tone and a musical tone subjected to tuning.
A book entitled “Acoustics of Musical Instruments”, which was written by Mr. Yoshinori Ando and was published by Ongaku-no-tomo Co. Ltd. (see pages 54-64) on Oct. 30, 1971, teaches acoustics regarding roots and overtones produced by wind instruments and brass instruments.
However, none of the conventionally-known electronic musical instruments having tuning devices including the aforementioned electronic musical instrument have a notification means for effectively notifying a player of a musical instrument subjected to tuning of a pitch difference between a reference tone and an actually produced musical tone. That is, it is necessary for the user of a conventionally-known electronic musical instrument to notify the player of a musical instrument subjected to tuning of pitch differences; but this is very inefficient.
Some of the conventionally-known tuning devices, which are provided independently of the conventionally-known electronic musical instruments, have a relatively large display; however, it is very troublesome for the users of tuning devices to set up reference tones because they do not have functions allowing users to set up frequencies of reference tones upon depression of keys.